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January 24, 2009
When Does 65" Not Equal 65"?
I was down at Best Buy today and the place was packed to the gills. Parking lot was full. Store was a zoo. Trucks were driving up and carting away those enormous hi-def 1080p televisions that I can't afford. Jennifer and Allie were running around spending money like there's no tomorrow. And I'm sitting there watching the Hulk in High Def on a $6,000 60" television.
It was a pretty cool movie. They were shooting at him with M16's and then they had a Black Hawk try to take him down. Plus some type of Pulse Weapon/Particle Beam/Force Field. All way cool.
Now, this television is a wide-screen TV. By that, I mean it has the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio that you normally see in movie theaters. The old school televsions like mine have the boxier 4:3 aspect ratio.
So, what I'd like to point out is that a 65" widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) television's screen is not as large as a 65" standard aspect ratio (4:3) television.
Probably you don't believe, so I'll throw some math on you real quick like. Television screens are measured diagonally. From corner to corner, if you will. For a 65" 16:9 aspect ratio television, the dimensions of the screen would be approx 56.65" wide and 31.87" high. (This is all based on Pythagoras theorem. Feel free to check the math.)
Area = L * W = 56.65 * 31.87 = approx 1805.44" sq. So, for a 16:9 aspect ratio 65" television, the total viewable surface area of the screen is 1805.44 square inches.
But, for a 4:3 aspect ratio 65" television, the width would only be 52" while the height would be 39". Again, Area = L * W = 52 * 39 = 2028 square inches. So, a 4:3 aspect ratio television has 12.3% more viewable surface area than a 16:9 aspect ratio television with the same diagonal measurements.
And then, of course, most idiots go home and configure their widescreen televisions to stretch their 4:3 aspect ratio programming to fill up their widescreen television so that everyone looks short and fat and now you know why I don't leave my house much. I can't cope with that. I can't sit in someone's house and watch a television where are circle appears as a flattened oval. I just can't do it.
Posted by Rob Kiser on January 24, 2009 at 9:54 PM
Comments
But if we make everyone on television look short and fat, it makes those of us who are short and fat in real life feel better about ourselves!
Posted by: Alice H on January 25, 2009 at 1:53 PM
Well, you have a fair point there. Something to be said for not portraying everyone on earth as beautiful perfect models. Probably I'm just bitter because I can't afford a new $6,000.00 telivision.
Posted by: Rob Kiser on January 25, 2009 at 2:27 PM